As has been pointed out in the above-identified application, cable conveyances for transporting people between a station at a relatively high altitude and a station at a lower altitude, e.g. between a hill or mountain station and a station at a lower point, e.g. in a valley, are widely used, for example, at ski slopes and in other areas in which the transport of people to mountain peak or from a mountain peak, for example, may prove to be desirable or advantageous.
Such cable conveyances generally comprise a transport cable extending endlessly around pulleys or wheels at the upper and lower stations, and a plurality of passenger-carrying vehicles, transporters or carriers which are suspended at spaced locations from the cable.
The "vehicles" or passenger carriers may be of diverse types. For example, they may be cabins, gondolas or cars, each of which is capable of carrying a number of passengers. They may be individual seats or chairs capable of carrying one or two passengers or they may be simply T-bars which entrain the carried passengers up a ski slope. For the purpose of this description, therefore, the devices which actually support the passengers to be transported will be referred to simply as carriers and the mechanisms by which the carriers are held on the cable as suspension devices.
With respect to the cable conveyance, insofar as the details thereof are necessary to an understanding of the instant application, the above-identified application is hereby incorporated in its entirely by reference.
At each of the stations or at least one of these stations, the cable conveyance can be provided with a transport rail along which the suspension devices are guided as the carriers are returned to the cable for movement between the station, and a circulating rail along which the carriers can be guided when the carriers are decoupled from the cable and are, for example, to be stopped or slowed to enable the passengers to mount or dismount. That rail may be referred to as a guide rail herein and transports the carriers from one side of the wheel or pulley to the opposite side thereof, i.e. from an arrival side of the cable to a departure side of the cable.
Upon termination of the operation of a cable conveyance of this type, it is frequently desirable to decouple the carriers, for example, the cabins or seats, from the cable and to guide the carriers via a transport rail into a predetermined region, especially an enclosed space, chamber or hall, in which the carrier can be garaged or stored at least until operation of the cable conveyance commences again.
This has the advantage that it protects the carriers against the effects of weather during periods in which the cable conveyance is inoperative. This has been found to be especially important for carriers like seats since otherwise it may be necessary in a highly time-consuming and inconvenient manner to clear the carrier from snow or ice before the carrier is recoupled to the cable.
Garaging is advantageous even for gondolas since experience has shown that gondolas left suspended from the cable during periods of inactivity of the conveyance can be damaged by the effects of wind and storms.
In prior art systems which allow for the garaging of the carriers, a branch is provided in the region of the transport cable over which the carrier is guided along a transport rail by means of a drive arrangement so that this drive arrangement engages, entrains or displaces each carrier substantially over its entire path from the cable conveyance to the storage chamber.
In the storage chamber a multiplicity of mutually parallel storage rails can be provided along which the carriers can be moved via curved rails. In general, over the entire paths of the carriers within the storage chamber, the storage rails must be associated with drive devices which can engage the carriers for such displacement and can be operated to deliver the carriers to the cable conveyance when recoupling is desired.
Because generally such drive systems are intended to operate in only one direction or sense, generally the storage chamber is supplied with the carriers from one side and the carriers are transported within the storage chamber to an opposite side from which they are ultimately returned to the cable conveyance via further curved transport rails and branches, i.e. switching rails or the like and, of course, the usual drive devices arrayed along these rails and branches.
Since the carriers must be coupled to the cable at locations which are determined by the single travel direction of the cable, two switch track arrangements are required in standard garaging systems so that the carriers are fed to the storage chamber via a first switch track and, with the cable operating in a single direction, the carriers are returned to the cable over a second switch track located downstream in this direction from the first switch track.
European patent document EU No. 125 967 B1 describes a cable conveyance with a rail for the movement of the carriers which is swingable to adjust the height of the carriers. This cable conveyance, however, does not provide a garaging for the carrier, nor does it suggest any relationship between this height adjustment and the garaging of the carriers.